Who’s who in the Salem Witchcraft Trials. You can browse and search for all case files here: http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/tags.html
Oyer and Terminer Judges & Officials
Doubting Judge Nathaniel Saltonstall
Chief Justice William Stoughton
JOHN ALDEN – Age about 65. The oldest son of John and Priscilla (Mullins) Alden, who’d settled in Plymouth Colony in 1620, arriving on the Mayflower.
John was in his mid-sixties when he was accused of witchcraft, and was a member of the Boston elite. He was a merchant, military commander, and sea captain, making several government-sponsored trips up and down the New England coast.
Alden was no stranger to scandal and gossip. At that time, northern New England, including Maine, was in a three-way tug-of-war between the English, the French, and the Native Americans. Raids and attacks were common, and when English settlers were taken captive they were frequently sent to Quebec. Alden participated in many prisoner ransoms and exchanges in French Canada; in fact, he spent so much time there that he was rumored to be selling guns to the French and their allied natives (not to mention sleeping with native women and siring several illegitimate children). It didn’t help that his interactions with the English prisoners were sometimes harsh, with some claiming he’d even left them behind for no good reason.
A few months before the witchcraft hysteria began, Alden’s ship was intercepted by a French frigate who captured the entire crew – including his son. Alden was released and sent to Boston to raise a ransom and arrange for a prisoner exchange, leaving his son behind in Quebec. His efforts were almost spectacularly unsuccessful (he managed to secure only six prisoners instead of 60). It was in the midst of this situation that Alden received a summons to appear in Salem Village, having been accused of witchcraft, then was sent to jail for several months. The French, losing patience with the delay, sent Alden’s son to the Bastille in France. It would be years before he returned home.
Alden spent four months in jail before escaping. Later he contributed his first-hand account of his experience to Robert Calef’s More Wonders of the Invisible World.
Alden died at age 75, ten years after the Trials began. Nearly 170 years later, an excavation in Boston revealed old bones and gravestones, including the stone that had marked John Alden’s grave. The location of his remains is unknown, but his gravestone can be seen at the Old South Church in Boston. Case files: John Alden
BRIDGET BISHOP – Age 55-65. Bridget was an unruly woman who, 20 years earlier, had been brought to court with her husband for fighting. Both of them were fined and ordered to be whipped if they didn’t pay the fine on time. Eight years later they were still fighting, and Bridget was brought to court for calling her husband names like “old rogue” and “old devil” on the Sabbath Day (never mind that he deserved it). This time they were ordered to stand back-to-back in the public marketplace, gagged, with pieces of paper labeled with their offense and fastened to each of their foreheads.
Bridget’s husband died a short time after that, and she inherited his sizable estate, worth about £70. But her daughter and two stepsons received only twenty shillings each. Immediately her stepsons accused her of bewitching their father to death.
Her notoriety continued when repairmen knocked down a cellar wall and found “several poppets made up of rags with hogs’ bristles with headless pins in them with the points outward.” The repairmen never actually produced the poppets – something like today’s voodoo dolls – but their testimony alone was evidence of black magic.
Five years later she was accused by the afflicted girls of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, but history doesn’t tell us what brought her to their attention. The important thing is that no one was surprised, and she quickly became the person the court was most focused on.
Bridget Bishop was the first victim of the Salem Witchcraft Trials. She was hanged on the hot and windy day of June 10, 1692.
NOTE – Bridget is often described as a tavern owner who let loud, young people drink and play “shovel board” until the wee hours. This actually refers to another woman, Sarah Bishop. She and Bridget were each married to a man named Edward Bishop, and they were all accused of witchcraft *though Bridget was the only one executed). Over the years, people began to confuse the two women.
ELIZABETH BOOTH – Age 18. Two years before the trials, she was herself accused of being a witch. During the trials, she accused 10 people, 5 of whom were executed. Case files: Elizabeth Booth
MARY BRADBURY (née Perkins) – Age 77. Mary was an upper-class woman who was highly regarded as devoutly religious, loving to her family, and a pious and generous neighbor. her family was distinguished; her husband’s great-uncle had been the Archbishop of Canterbury under Queen Elizabeth I. Despite a petition signed by 115 supporters, Mary was tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang. With the help of her loved ones, though, she escaped from jail and lived in hiding until the Trials were over. She died eight years after the Trials, at age 85. Case files: Mary Bradbury
Mary Bradbury’s descendants include Ralph Waldo Emerson and Ray Bradbury.
GEORGE BURROUGHS – Age about 42. George Burroughs was the minister of Salem Village until 9 years before the Trials began. He lived in Maine when he was accused of witchcraft, but the people of the Village remembered him well. They’d been dissatisfied with him as the minister, and refused to pay him. So when his wife died suddenly, he had to borrow money to pay for her funeral. With no salary, Burroughs couldn’t repay the debt, so he resigned and left, which would come back to haunt him.
The court ordered them to settle their differences, and the Village agreed to pay him everything it owed, minus the amount of his debt. But when Burroughs arrived with the paperwork, he was arrested instead. Eventually the case was dropped, and the Village paid Burroughs some of what they owed. But it left bitterness for everyone involved. So when he was accused of witchcraft, there was already animosity on both sides.
Burroughs landed in Falmouth, Maine (now Portland), where he lived when an Indian attack destroyed the settlement. It was here that Burroughs met the families of Mercy Lewis and Abigail Hobbs. The attack drove the Hobbs family to Salem. But the Lewis family was killed, so he took Mercy in as a servant for a time, before sending her to another unknown family, and then eventually to Salem. He himself then moved further south to Wells, Maine, where he lived at the time of the accusation.
Burroughs’ history with Salem Village was troublesome enough. But people also suspected his physical traits. He was dark-skinned, very short, and muscular. He was also much stronger than he looked, even preternaturally so. His trial included testimony from people who’d heard that he could lift a 7-foot musket by inserting one finger into the barrel, then raising it to arm’s length. It was also said that he could “take up a full barrll of molasses wth butt two fingers of one of his hands in the bung and carry itt from ye stage head to the door att the end of the stage wth out letting itt downe.” Case files: George Burroughs
George Burroughs’ descendants include Walt Disney.
MARTHA CARRIER – Age 39. Martha was born in Andover, Massachusetts. Before her marriage, she moved to the nearby town of Billerica, where she lived with her sister and brother-in-law. There she met Thomas Carrier, a 7’4” Welshman who was twenty years her senior. They married when she was 21, and had their first child two months later.
Her husband was rumored to be one of the “headsmen” who executed King Charles I. Were people afraid of him, an extraordinarily tall executioner? Did their obvious premarital relations make them the subject of gossip? Was Martha’s obnoxious behavior toward her neighbors overly aggressive? It’s impossible to know why, but they were asked to leave Billerica, and soon moved back to Andover to live with Martha’s parents.
Back then, the smallpox virus broke out regularly and, highly contagious, swept through entire communities. In 1690 — two years before the witchcraft trials — a smallpox outbreak began in Martha’s family, which included five children. Surprisingly, none of the Carriers died. But seven members of Martha’s extended family did, including her father, both of her brothers, two nephews, one sister-in-law, and one brother-in-law. Not just that, but six other people from Andover died, too. From that point on, the Carriers were outcasts, believed to be the cause of the epidemic.
Martha Carrier’s name was cleared of all charges nearly twenty years after her death. In 1999, Billerica’s Board of Selectmen unanimously voted to rescind the 1676 banishment of the Carrier family, 323 years earlier. Case files: Martha Carrier
SARAH CHURCHILL – Age 20-25. Sarah and her family were refugees from the Indian wars in Maine, and had ultimately settled in Salem Village. There she’d hired herself out to the prosperous farmer George Jacobs Sr. When she began feeling torments, it interfered with her work, and Jacobs lost his temper (even calling her a “bitch witch”).
Perhaps because of abuse from Jacobs, her symptoms went away. But then the other girls accused her of witchcraft (what else could explain her cure?). In a panic, Sarah confessed and accused others, but quickly realized she’d cornered herself with lies and false accusations. Throughout the Trials she saved herself with the delicate balance of a confessed witch who was also afflicted.
15 years after the Trials, Sarah married a weaver in Maine, after being fined for premarital fornication. She lived at least until age 59. Case files: Sarah Churchill
SARAH CLOYCE (née Towne) – Age 50-55. With Rebecca Nurse and Mary Esty, Sarah was one of three sisters to be arrested for witchcraft. Her dramatic exit from church – complete with a slammed door – can be thought of as the first public protest against the trials.
Popular myth says that Sarah’s husband helped her escape from prison; that they spent the winter living in a cave while they built a house. This myth probably grew out of people misinterpreting the phrase “escaped execution.”
The truth is that Sarah stayed in jail and was released after the trials ended, thereby escaping execution. Once released, she and her husband moved first to Boston and then to Framingham, where they built a house on Salem End Road. Case files: Sarah Cloyce
GILES COREY – Age 81. A well-to-do farmer in Salem Village. Martha Corey was his third wife. Both were accused of witchcraft. Giles and two of his sons-in-law spoke against Martha in her trial.
As for his own trial, Giles’ history of violence and contentious behavior set public opinion against him. He had stolen from several people, including goods from Justice Corwin’s father, and twelve bushels of apples from a neighbor. After another conflict, the same neighbor’s saw-mill mysteriously stopped working. Giles’ reputation was such that when John Proctor’s house caught on fire, Proctor accused Corey setting the blaze. The matter reached the courts until one of Proctor’s sons confessed to an accident with a lamp.
Worst of all, about 15 years before the trials, he was tried for brutally beating an indentured servant who was caught stealing apples from Corey’s brother-in-law. Ten days later, Corey sent the servant to get medical attention, but he died soon after. Case files: Giles Corey
MARTHA COREY – Age Unknown. As a young woman, Martha had an illegitimate son who was of mixed race. She named him Benoni, meaning “son of my sorrow,” a name usually reserved for babies whose mothers had died in childbirth. Martha lived with “Ben” in a boarding house for several years before she was married for the first time.
When her first husband died, Martha married Giles Corey, 80. Her mixed-race son, now 22, was living with them at the time of the trials.
Martha had joined the church two years before the trials began, and had referred to herself as a Gospel Woman ever since. She could be condescending, and was quick to state her opinions. She was respected but disliked, and her scandalous past counted against her. Case files: Martha Corey
SHERIFF GEORGE CORWIN – Age 25. Related to the three of the judges: nephew of both Judge Jonathan Corwin and Judge Wait Winthrop, Judge Bartholomew Gedney’s son-in-law.
It was Sheriff Corwin’s job to bring the condemned person by cart from prison to the execution site. He was also required by law to confiscate the property — excluding land — of condemned prisoners. That property included farming objects such as livestock, hay, apples, and corn, and household goods such as kettles, pewter, furniture, and jewelry.
When a married woman was executed, all of her property was owned legally by her surviving husband. So there was nothing to confiscate. But married men and widows did own their own property, which was therefore required to be confiscated.
These goods were supposed to be inventoried and stored, to help pay the felon’s jail costs and support their family. That said, it’s known that Sheriff Corwin sold some of John Proctor’s livestock, and slaughtered and salted the rest for shipping to the West Indies. Case files: George Corwin.
JONATHAN CORWIN – Age 51. A quietly effective magistrate. Corwin was a wealthy merchant who was elected to the colonial assembly twice, and was an active magistrate of the local courts, hearing cases dealing with petty crimes and minor charges such as drunkenness and burglary. With his friend and fellow judge John Hathorne, he presided over many of the initial hearings for the witchcraft trials and was relentless in seeking confessions.
Corwin’s personal life was hardly peaceful. Four of his children had recently died when he called the first witchcraft hearing into order, and another had nearly drowned. One of his other children was said to have been afflicted by one of the accused women. Later his mother-in-law would be accused of witchcraft, though she was never arrested.
Corwin never expressed regret or remorse for his role in the trials, and died 26 years later a wealthy and respected man. His house is the only structure in Salem that’s still standing from the time of the witchcraft trials, and is known today as the Witch House. Case files: Jonathan Corwin
PHILIP ENGLISH – Age 41 — Philip English was everything that most people disliked. He was French, having changed his last name from “L’Anglois” to “English.” He was also Anglican, a member of the very church that the Puritans wanted to reform. He was extremely wealthy, even ostentatious. And he was arrogant; quick to sue people over property disputes, refusing to accept even the smallest loss.
That a French, Anglican immigrant could become the wealthiest man in Salem – run by English Puritans – rankled more than a few. So it may not have been a surprise when one of the most impoverished girls accused the wealthy Philip and his wife of witchcraft.
Mary was arrested right away, but Philip managed to evade the authorities for several weeks. Once captured, though, he and Mary were sent to jail in Boston, where, due to their wealth, they were free to roam Boston daily as long as they promised to return at night. On the day before their trial, though, they escaped to New York, aided by the Governor himself.
After the Witchcraft Trials ended, Philip English returned to Salem to discover that the Sheriff had confiscated most of his belongings, with his neighbors pilfering more than a few. English sued the Sheriff for years to regain his property, but the Sheriff died before the dispute was settled. Ultimately, of the £1,200 of lost property, only £200 was given as recompense to Philip and his heirs.
A popular myth says that English wouldn’t give up his lawsuits, and when the Sheriff died, threatened to steal his corpse and hold it for ransom. Some say he did steal the body, while others say the Sheriff was buried in his own basement for years to avoid it. Neither of these stories holds up to scholarly scrutiny.
Mary died in childbirth, a year after the Trials ended. Philip outlived her by 43 years, dying at age 85.
MARY ESTY – (née Towne) Age 58. Sister of Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Cloyce. Married to Isaac Esty, with whom she had 11 children. Mary’s mother had long ago been suspected of witchcraft. Despite her piety, with the arrest and indictment of 2 of her sisters, it was no surprise that she was also caught up in it. Case files: Mary Esty
Mary Esty’s descendants include baseball great Ty Cobb.
DOROTHY “DORCAS” GOOD – Age 4. Dorcas (also known as Dorothy) was the daughter of the beggar Sarah Good. Dorcas was accused of witchcraft, like her mother, and confessed that her mother had given her a little snake that sucked on her finger. The magistrates took this to mean she had a “familiar” and was, therefore, guilty. Dorcas stayed in prison for eight months and was emotionally damaged for the rest of her life. Case files: Dorothy Good
SARAH GOOD (née Solart) – Age 39. A near vagrant who smoked a pipe and had a terrible temper. Sarah was one of the first to be accused. Eventually her four-year-old daughter would also be accused and put in prison.
Sarah was born to a well-to-do innkeeper who drowned himself when Sarah was 17. He’d left a sizeable estate of 500 pounds to be shared among his 3 daughters, but when her mother remarried, Sarah’s stepfather kept the money to himself and left her with virtually nothing.
Sarah first married an indentured servant who died and left her with massive debts. When she married again, she and her new husband, William Good, inherited that debt. The government seized some of their land to pay it, leaving only a small portion, with William doing odd jobs around the Village. A recent smallpox epidemic had made that nearly impossible, though, and he and Sarah – with their children – fell into poverty.
Over time Sarah became impoverished and bitter, friendless, a near vagrant who was almost universally disliked. She was quarrelsome and loud, smoked a pipe, refused to go to church “for want of clothes.” It was true that she had only two dresses, ten years old, and her children had even less. Still, she showed no interest in leading a virtuous life, which made her suspect. Case files: Sarah Good
Dr. WILLIAM GRIGS – Age about 78. Case files: William Grigs
JOHN HATHORNE – Age 51. A magistrate who was more like a prosecutor than a judge. Hathorne began his business career as a bookkeeper, but quickly moved to land speculation. Eventually he acquired a ship, a wharf, and a liquor license, and made enough money to build a mansion in Salem Town, and a warehouse near the wharf.
Hathorne had served the Salem community as a judge for about five years when the trials began. He was aggressive and even cruel in his questioning, always assuming the accused person was guilty, and the afflicted girls were truthful and genuinely tormented. It was a perfect example of “guilty until proven innocent.”
Hathorne was one of only three judges who showed no introspection or remorse after the trials ended. Because his reputation was one of dogged cruelty, some of his descendants were ashamed of their connection to him, including his great-great-grandson Nathaniel Hawthorne, who distanced himself by adding a W to his name before writing “House of the Seven Gables.” Case files: John Hathorne
Dorcas Hoar’s house. It was torn down in the early 1900s.
DORCAS HOAR – Age 58. A widow who led a burglary ring, which included six of her children and numerous servants in households around town. Among her victims was a local minister whose servant stole an abundance of money, jewelry, clothing, and food, funneling all of it to Dorcas Hoar. Once captured, the burglars’ only sentences were to pay the costs of what they stole. They were light sentences indeed, but still resented by the Hoar family, who beat two of the minister’s cows (one to death) in revenge.
Dorcas Hoar’s hair was four feet, seven inches long and matted, a so-called “elf-lock” where evil spirits could hide. During her trial, the suspicious court ordered that her hair be cut off, a devastating blow. Her execution was delayed when she confessed.
After the trials, she moved in with her son-in-law, later dying of poverty. Case files: Dorcas Hoar
ABIGAIL HOBBS – Age 15. Abigail and her family were from Maine, where Indian attacks had decimated the English settlements. It was here that she began wandering the woods at night. When her family, neighbors, and friends asked why she wasn’t afraid of being attacked, she said she “sold her selfe boddy & Soull to the old boy” and has “seen the divell and . . . made a covenant or bargin with him.”
When life in Maine became too dangerous, the Hobbs family moved to Topsfield, Massachusetts, which is next to Salem. Abigail continued roaming the woods at night, and developed a reputation of being rude and disrespectful to her parents. She even sprinkled water in her stepmother’s face in a mock baptism, and openly defied her parents in public.
Even though she was a teenager, no one was surprised when Abigail was finally accused of witchcraft. But, like some of the other accused, she soon realized that the best way to avoid being hanged was to confess and accuse others of witchcraft. It was only a delay, though, and eventually her execution was scheduled. She got lucky again, though, when the governor paused the trials and signed a reprieve for her and others.
Later, when Abigail was 32, she married Andrew Senter and had at least two sons, Andrew and Thomas. We don’t know how long she lived after that. Case files: Abigail Hobbs
ELIZABETH HOW (née Jackson) – Age 55. Married to James How, who was fully blind, and had six known children. Compared to many people, Elizabeth was thought to be friendly and a good neighbor. During her trial, at least twelve people testified on her behalf.
Elizabeth’s accusers fell into two camps: first, a family whose ten-year-old daughter was very sick, and claimed that Elizabeth’s specter was to blame. She took back her accusation, but after two or three years of illness, the girl died, and her parents continued to hold Elizabeth accountable.
Second, church members who then suspected her of witchcraft and wouldn’t let her join the church. Their gossip increased the number and fervency of accusations. Case files: Elizabeth How
Elizabeth How’s descendants include British fashion designer Alexander McQueen.
ELIZABETH HUBBARD – Age 17. She lived as a servant with her great-uncle, Dr. William Griggs. She had a reputation for lying, having a strong imagination, and sometimes denied the Sabbath day.
Like many of the other young women who were servants, Elizabeth’s prospects were uncertain at best, even dismal. She was probably an orphan, with no physical or emotional support from direct family members.
By the end of the trial Elizabeth had testified against 32 people, 17 of whom were arrested, 13 of them hanged, and 2 who died in jail.
History isn’t clear on what happened to Elizabeth after the trials. Records exists for a woman named Elizabeth Hibbert, who married John Bennett and had four children. But it isn’t known whether this was the same Elizabeth Hubbard. Case files: Elizabeth Hubbard
NATHANIEL INGERSOLL – Age about 60. One of two deacons in the church, and a Lieutenant in the militia. Nathaniel was known to be unfailingly honest, fair, and generous. He donated land for the Meeting House. After his father’s death, Nathaniel, 11, went to live with his father’s friend Governor Endecott on a 300-acre country estate, where he apprenticed for several years. There he learned to run his own farm and home, and when he was only 19 he married a young woman and moved on to his own land. The Ingersolls had one daughter, who died young. But their neighbor had several sons, and offered to let the Ingersolls adopt one of them and raise him as their own.
The Ingersoll Ordinary is still standing, though much of the building has been renovated or added to since. The original part of the building was built around 1670. Case files: Nathaniel Ingersoll
Side note: Governor John Endecott was the longest-serving Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony: he was the 1st, 10th, 13th, 15th, and 17th governor. He planted a pear tree sometime between 1632 and 1649, which is still standing. It’s America’s oldest cultivated tree.
GEORGE JACOBS SR. – Age 80. Toothless, with long white hair, and so tall that he walked with 2 canes (or “sticks”). He was opinionated and abusive, and known for his violent temper. The gossip among the servants was that he used his walking stick to beat his servant, Sarah Churchill (who became one of his accusers). Soon the other servant girls claimed that Jacobs’ specter was beating them, too, sometimes with his sticks. During his trial, others reported that his specter had committed evil. Case files: George Jacobs Sr.
MARGARET JACOBS – Age 16. Margaret was one of the afflicted girls, but when her symptoms went away, the other girls suspected she’d used witchcraft to recover. She and her grandfather, George Jacobs Sr., were arrested on the same day.
Now accused and terrified of hanging, Margaret confessed to being a witch. Since her grandfather had already been accused by others, she named him as well. Later, stricken by her conscience, she recanted her confession, but the judges refused to accept her change of heart and confined her to a solitary cell with no permission to go out into the yard or socialize with other prisoners.
Margaret’s trial was temporarily postponed because of a boil on her head. She was fortunate: Before she recovered, the court was abolished and executions ceased. Seven years later, Margaret married and had seven known children. She died at age 41 in Billerica, Massachusetts. Case files: Margaret Jacobs
MERCY LEWIS – Age 18, a traumatized orphan and refugee of the Indian Wars in Maine. She was a servant in the powerful Putnam family. Mercy accused 9 people of witchcraft, testified in 16, and appeared with the other afflicted girls in several more.
Mercy was born and raised in Falmouth, Maine, where her village was decimated by Indian attacks that, early in her childhood, took her grandparents and cousins. Then, when she was 15 or 16, another brutal attack burned her village to the ground and killed most of its people, including Mercy’s parents.
Mercy and the few other survivors took refuge on an island, where the minister George Burroughs took her in as a servant. He was known to be verbally abusive to his wives, both of whom had died years earlier, and he may have been a harsh taskmaster. Perhaps that explains why Mercy would later accuse him of witchcraft.
Over the next few years Mercy served the Burroughs family, then an unknown home in Beverly, Massachusetts, and then finally the Putnam family in Salem Village. It was here that she befriended the 12-year-old Ann Putnam, and began suffering with fits and seizures. Today we might say Mercy had PTSD.
Once the trials were over, Mercy moved 50 miles north to Greenland, New Hampshire to live with her aunt. There she gave birth to an illegitimate child, married a man with the last name Allen, and moved away, probably to Boston. History loses track of her after that. Case files: Mercy Lewis
SUSANNAH MARTIN (née North) – Age 71. Depending on who you asked, she was either “one of the most “impudent, scurrilous, wicked creatures in the world” (Cotton Mather), or an “honest, hard-working Christian woman and a “Martyr of Superstition” (her historical house marker).
We do know that her past included six unsuccessful lawsuits to inherit her father’s estate. She had also been in court numerous times when her neighbors accused her of a variety of offenses, including calling one of them a liar and a thief. She was accused twice of witchcraft before the Salem hysteria, but the charges were eventually dropped.
During Martin’s examination, she laughed at her accusers. When asked if she had any compassion for the afflicted, she replied, “No. I have none.”
At her later trial, somewhere between nine and 24 people traveled by horse for nearly three days to Boston just to testify against her. Among their grievances: she’d caused one man’s oxen to drown themselves, her specter had stalked a farm hand, she’d bitten another man’s hand, she’d driven a neighbor mad, and she’d been seen at witch meetings. Case files: Susannah Martin
Susannah Martin’s descendants include U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, Burl Ives, Mickey Rourke, and U.S. President Chester A. Arthur.
REVEREND COTTON MATHER – Age 29. One of the most conservative and influential Puritan ministers in colonial America. He’s remembered today for setting the extreme moral tone of Puritan New England, for his prolific writing (more than 450 books and pamphlets), and for his scholarship in science. He’s also known for his involvement in the events surrounding the Salem Witchcraft Trials.
Little is written about Cotton Mather’s severe stutter as a child and young man, and although he claimed to have been cured, it’s more likely that he learned to mask it. In public he was a careful and deliberative speaker. When not in the pulpit, he was quiet, which only added to his reputation of arrogance. Regardless, his speech defect might be one reason he was such a prolific writer. It could also explain his deep interest in science as an alternative career to the ministry.
Three years before the Trials, when he was 26, Mather published a book about several afflicted children who were bewitched by a local washerwoman. Mather himself had been deeply involved with the families, observing and recording the children’s activities, and played a role in the washerwoman’s ultimate hanging. Some say the book helped lay the groundwork for the Salem Witchcraft Trials.
Mather was highly influential in the ministry, offered conflicting and calamitous advice about using specters as evidence, and publicized (and even celebrated) the trials as they were happening. He witnessed at least 5 hangings, calling one accused woman a ”rampant hag,” and an accused minister a “puny man.“ Later he congratulated the Chief Justice for “extinguishing as wonderful a piece of devilism as has been seen in the world.”
Cotton Mather never expressed remorse or regret for his role in the witchcraft hysteria. In fact, for several years after the trials, he continued to defend them and seemed to hold out a hope for their return.
In a more scholarly vein, he went on to make legitimate contributions to the sciences of plant hybridization and disease inoculation, and became a fellow of the Royal Society of London. He promoted Newtonian science in America, and wrote extensively to unify the fields of science, philosophy, and religion.
Cotton Mather died 36 years after the trials. He was twice widowed, and only two of his 15 children outlived him. His grave can be found in the Copp’s Hill Burying Ground in Boston. Case files: Cotton Mather
REVEREND INCREASE MATHER – Age 53. Puritan minister & President of Harvard College. Urged the court to disregard “spectral” evidence. Case files: Increase Mather
REVEREND NICHOLAS NOYES – Age ##. The minister of the Trials. Case files: Nicholas Noyes
REBECCA NURSE (née Towne) – Age 70. A weak grandmother and much beloved member of the church. The accusations against her planted the first seeds of doubt in the trials.
Some historians speculate that a handful of women in the Village were suspicious of Rebecca because all eight of her children had survived to adulthood. This was unusual in a time of high infant mortality and diseases like smallpox.
It’s more likely that the animosity stemmed from years of land disputes between Rebecca’s father and then husband against other families, including the Putnams, who were the most powerful family in the Village. Most recently, the Nurse family had been part of a long and loud boundary dispute with a neighbor who claimed that some of the Nurses’ 300 acres were his. The dispute ended up in the General Court, where the neighbor lost, bitterly. The truth was more complicated, though. The Nurses didn’t own their farm; they mortgaged it. So it wasn’t the Nurses who’d won in court and insulted the neighbor: it was the farm’s owner. Still, many people believed it was the Nurse family who’d been so stubborn and argumentative. Case files: Rebecca Nurse
Rebecca Nurse’s descendants include Vincent Price and Mitt Romney.
SARAH OSBORNE – Age 49. Osborne was a social outcast who’d married her own servant, and was rumored to have committed fornication with him. She was also sickly, of a nervous temperament, and hadn’t been to church in more than three years.
Osborne was also disliked by the Putnams. When her first husband died, he left his land to Sarah to be held in trust until their two sons were of age. Two of his Putnam brothers-in-law were the executors of the estate.
Several years later, Sarah purchased her own servant’s indenture, then married him. They then went to court to try to break the trust and gain control of the property. The Putnams were deeply offended; in fact, of the four people who’d signed the complaint resulting in her arrest, two of them were Putnams.
Sarah Osborne was the first victim of the witchcraft hysteria, dying in jail after nine weeks of being chained. Case files: Sarah Osborne
OYER and TERMINER Judges and Officials:
- William Stoughton (Chief Justice) – age 61; the only bachelor on the court. He’d studied for the ministry at Harvard and Oxford, and had preached successfully both in England and in Massachusetts. He left the pulpit without being ordained to enter a life of politics, and, despite lacking any legal training, became the Chief Justice of Massachusetts. Served as a justice under an immensely unpopular Governor .
- Nathaniel Saltonstall – age 53; a militia leader who resigned from the court in protest after the first hanging. He was replaced by Jonathan Corwin, age 52, a merchant and magistrate at the early examinations in Salem.
- Wait-Still Winthrop – age 50; a militia leader and trained physician who attended Harvard for one year.
- Peter Sergeant – age 45; a merchant and former constable.
- John Richards – age 40; a military officer, businessman, and merchant who’d worked his way up from a position as a servant.
- Samuel Sewall – age 40; educated for the ministry at Harvard, but entered business. His diaries are among the most important documents that show us life through Puritan eyes. He would be the only judge to apologize for his role in the Trials.
- Bartholomew Gedney – age 52; a trained physician. Served as a justice under an immensely unpopular Governor. a magistrate, physician, town selectman. merchant and the colonel of the Essex County militia.
- John Hathorne – age 51; a merchant and magistrate known to be ruthless and even cruel in his questioning. He was one of the magistrates at the early examinations in Salem.
Clerk of the Court: Stephen Sewall. Samuel Sewall’s brother. It was his family that was caring for Rev Parris’s daughter 9yo Betty, one of the first afflicted girls. Parris had sent her away to protect her from the chaos.
King’s Attorney General: Thomas Newton. Anglican. He’d probably participated in another witchcraft trial several years earlier.
Sheriff: George Corwin. Related to three of the judges. As Sheriff, he replaced the Marshall, who’d arrested several of the suspects.
ALICE PARKER – Age about 60. Alice was known to be forthright and even aggressive in her speech. She may have suffered from catalepsy, an ailment that causes sudden unconsciousness and rigid posture. One month before the first girls began suffering from unknown torments, Alice was found by neighbors, lying in the snow, seemingly dead. A group of men were there, but they were nervous about picking her up. One of the women assured them that Alice had lost consciousness several times before, but it still took a few minutes before one of them was brave enough to pick her up and hoist her over his shoulder. But she didn’t regain consciousness, not even when the man lost his hold and dropped her. At last they got her home and to bed, but while the men were taking off her shoes she suddenly sat up and laughed. Case files: Alice Parker
MARY PARKER – Case files: Mary Parker
BETTY PARRIS – Age 9. Betty was the daughter of Reverend Samuel Parris. She and her cousin Abigail Williams, who lived with the Parris family, were the first girls to suffer from strange fits and afflictions. Betty was the youngest of the afflicted girls and among those who accused the first three suspects. As the trials began to pick up steam, Reverend Parris grew alarmed and sent her to live with his cousin in Boston.
Betty suffered occasional fits at her new home, but was cared for and went on to lead a healthy and happy childhood. She married and had four children, two of whom she named after her siblings, and lived to the old age of 77. Case files: Betty Parris
REVEREND SAMUEL PARRIS – Age 39. The Puritan minister of Salem Village, the father and uncle of two afflicted girls, and the slave-master of one confessor. The witchcraft hysteria began in his family.
Parris was born in London and attended Harvard College in Boston, then left to run a sugar plantation he’d inherited in Barbados. Several years later he returned to Boston with his slaves Tituba and her husband “John Indian.” He dabbled in business, but soon decided to enter the ministry.
Parris was considering leaving business for the ministry and had begun filling in for area ministers when Salem Village invited him to lead their church. But he negotiated their offer like a business contract instead of an invitation, and held out for a full year, insisting on a binding contract and adding clauses for things like price freezes, future pay raises, and ownership of land. Finally, when the committee met to sign the final agreement, Parris didn’t show up.
With that mutual misunderstanding, Parris took up his appointment and began preaching at the Village church. What followed was two years of acrimonious disagreement punctuated by weekly sermons of thinly veiled barbs against the congregation. Finally, they stopped paying him. It was a brutally cold winter, and the lack of firewood and low supplies of food were a hardship, but Parris doubled down in his sermons. Three months later, the witchcraft hysteria began in his home. Case files: Samuel Parris
GOVERNOR WILLIAM PHIPS – Age 41. The Royal Governor of Massachusetts. He was a large, compactly built man, with a true rags-to-riches story. With ambition and confidence (even arrogance), he bluffed his way past 3 British kings to rise from a poor childhood in Maine, first working as a shepherd, then as an apprentice to a ship’s carpenter. He moved to Boston and within the next 8 years captained a royal ship, found great fortune through treasure hunting, was knighted by the king, won a major battle against the French, was made a magistrate, and finally was appointed to be the Royal Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
Phips was intelligent and driven, but he was also said to be an ambitious, self-promoter who bluffed his way past 3 kings to find success.
Upon being appointed Royal Governor, Phips returned to Massachusetts from London to find Salem’s witch hysteria well underway. He’s best remembered today as forming the court that would bring many of the accused to trial and execution. His own wife was accused of witchcraft, and within months he disbanded the court and pardoned those still in jail awaiting trial.
Phips never expressed remorse or introspection about the trials. Three years after they ended, he contracted a fever and died. He was 44. Case files: William Phipps
ELIZABETH PROCTOR – Age about 40. When Elizabeth was about 10, her grandmother was tried (and acquitted) for witchcraft. Like her grandmother, Elizabeth also grew medicinal herbs, had a significant knowledge of folk medicine, and was sometimes consulted as a healer. The people of Salem Village had long memories, and there had always been a whiff of suspicion about Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was the third wife of John Proctor, a somewhat harsh man who rented a large farm and tavern just south of the Village. Elizabeth was quarrelsome herself and ran the tavern, making hard cider from its orchard, and serving travelers between the Village and the Town. She was criticized for always insisting on payment, even if it required pawned goods.
Elizabeth and John had 6 known children, one of whom had died. She was pregnant with a seventh when she and John were arrested. John was hanged and Elizabeth was sentenced, but her execution was stayed until after she gave birth. The executions came to an end before the birth of her son, whom she named John Jr. Case files: Elizabeth Proctor
JOHN PROCTOR – Age 60, the first male to be accused of witchcraft during the trials.
John was a forthright and practical man who could also be harsh. He’d been known to enjoy rum a little too much and often quarreled with his wife. But he was also respected throughout the community as an intelligent and upstanding citizen.
When the trials began, John was leasing a 700-acre farm and running a tavern from his home. By all accounts it was successful, in part because his wife Elizabeth always insisted on payment, even if it was with pawned goods. It’s possible some of the Village residents were jealous of his prosperity and success. Case files: John Proctor
ANN PUDEATOR – Age 70-75. Ann was a nurse and midwife, as well as a widow with property and means. But her neighbors were suspicious of exactly how she’d attained them. Years before the Trials, she was hired by a prosperous man to look after his wife in her last days. The wife was a drunkard, described as delirious and out-of-control. She died suddenly under what was thought to be mysterious circumstances, and both her husband and Ann, her hired nurse, were there. Could they have “helped” her die? The case went to court, but nothing came of it.
If that wasn’t enough, Ann then married the widowed husband, who was twenty years younger than she was. He died soon after they were married, and left everything to her — and it was quite a lot. Did she have something to do with his death as well? Case files: Ann Pudeator
Ann Pudeator’s ancestors include Humphrey Bogart.
ANN PUTNAM – Age 12. Accused 18 of the 20 people who were eventually executed, and more than 40 more who were jailed. Ann was the oldest child in the powerful Putnam family. She was the “leader” of the group of girls, which eventually grew to include older women and men.
14 years after the trials, Ann’s health was in decline and she asked to make a confession to be read at the meeting house. Working with a minister, she dictated a confession that was written and signed in the church-book one night before services. The next morning it was read by the pastor in front of the congregation while Ann stood.
“The Confession of Anne Putnam, when she was received to Communion, 1706.
“I desire to be humbled before God for that sad and humbling providence that befell my father’s family in the year about ’92; that I, then being in my childhood, should, by such a providence of God, be made an instrument for the accusing of several persons of a grievous crime, whereby their lives were taken away from them, whom now I have just grounds and good reason to believe they were innocent persons; and that it was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in that sad time, whereby I justly fear I have been instrumental, with others, though ignorantly and unwittingly, to bring upon myself and this land the guilt of innocent blood; though what was said or done by me against any person I can truly and uprightly say, before God and man, I did it not out of any anger, malice, or ill-will to any person, for I had no such thing against one of them; but what I did was ignorantly, being deluded by Satan. And particularly, as I was a chief instrument of accusing of Goodwife Nurse and her two sisters, I desire to lie in the dust, and to be humbled for it, in that I was a cause, with others, of so sad a calamity to them and their families; for which cause I desire to lie in the dust, and earnestly beg forgiveness of God, and from all those unto whom I have given just cause of sorrow and offence, whose relations were taken away or accused.”
THOMAS PUTNAM – Age 41. A third-generation resident of Salem Village. Some of the most prolific accusers were his daughter Ann, his niece Mary Walcott, and his servant Mercy Lewis. He gave their accusations legal weight by seeking arrest warrants, transcribing depositions, swearing out complaints, and writing letters to the judges.
Thomas was aggressive in his support in part because he was a resentful and bitter man, for several reasons.
On a general level was an ongoing family feud between Thomas’s family, the Putnams, and the Porters. The Putnams lived in the rural Village, while the Porters lived in the Town. The Putnams were farmers, and the Porters were merchants. The Putnams were prosperous enough, but all of their worth and income were tied up in a farm. The Porters, with their ability to start and fund new businesses, eventually became one of the wealthiest families in the region. It was a classic conflict of rural vs. urban, farmer vs. merchant, and Thomas was squarely on the rural farmer side.
On a more personal level, Thomas’s father had recently died and left most of his estate to Thomas’s stepmother and half-brother, whom he disliked. Thomas felt cheated, even disinherited, and contested the will, but he failed. Adding insult to injury, his half-brother then married into the enemy side: Porter family. The feud just intensified.
To sum it up: Thomas had a lot of axes to grind. Case files: Thomas Putnam Jr.
WILMOT REDD – Age around 55. Redd had a reputation for being ornery and unlikeable. Case files: Wilmot Redd
“DOUBTING JUDGE” NATHANIEL SALTONSTALL – Age 53. Considered to be one of the most principled men of his time. Saltonstall had been a judge for 30 years when took his seat in the witchcraft trials, but he resigned in protest after the first trial and just before the first hanging. He remained “very much dissatisfied with the proceedings.” Some time after his resignation, the afflicted girls reportedly saw his specter, but there is no record that anything was done about it.
He was also known, discreetly, as having a drinking problem. His friend and colleague once said he was grieved when he “heard and saw that you had drunk to excess; so that your head and hand were rendered less useful than at other times … Let me intreat you, Sir, to break off this practice (so tis rumored to be) not as the river ; but obstinately and perpetually to refuse the yoke … I write not of prejudice, but kindness; and out of a sense of duty as indeed I do. Take it in good part from him who desires your everlasting welfare.” (no case files)
MARGARET SCOTT – Age 76. Scott was an elderly beggar who’d been a widow for many years. 20 years earlier, when her husband had died, he’d left a very small estate for Margaret and her three children. She didn’t remarry and was reduced to begging. Case files: Margaret Scott
JUDGE SAMUEL SEWALL – Age 40. Sewall was a printer and local politician when he was appointed to the Court of Oyer and Terminer, which was created by the governor to try the witchcraft cases.
Sewall is perhaps best remembered as a diarist who kept a journal throughout his adult life. His diary during the Witchcraft Trials is one of the most important documents we have, as it isn’t a court record as much as personal observations.
Five years after the Trials, Sewall stood before the congregation of the South Church in Boston while the Rev. Samuel Willard read his confession.
Samuel Sewall, sensible of the reiterated strokes of God upon himself and family; and being sensible, that as to the Guilt contracted upon the opening of the late Commission of Oyer and Terminer at Salem (to which the order of this Day relates) he is, upon many accounts, more concerned than any that he knows of, Desires to take the Blame and shame of it, Asking pardon of men, And especially desiring prayers that God, who has an Unlimited Authority, would pardon that sin and all other his sins; personal and Relative.
Sewall was an early abolitionist, and wrote The Selling of Joseph, the first anti-slavery tract published in New England.
Samuel Sewall died in 1730, at age 77. His grave can be found in the Sewall family tomb at Boston’s Granary Burying Ground. Case files: Samuel Sewall
SUSANNAH SHELDON – Age 18. Susannah was a traumatized refugee of the Indian Wars in Maine. Her 24yo brother was killed in an Indian attack, and her 10yo brother died of “distraction.” Only four months before she made her first accusation, her father died of an infected wound that he’d received in Maine, and the family farm was taken. Her mother, fours sisters, and brother were reduced to poverty. Her first accusations were against the wealthiest family in Salem. Her visions were among the most disturbing.
Of the people Susannah accused and/or testified against, 15 were hanged. Case files: Susannah Sheldon
CHIEF JUSTICE WILLIAM STOUGHTON – Age 61. Stoughton was a magistrate in Boston who began his powerful role in the Trials by helping with Salem’s local examinations. When the Governor arrived from England to find an explosion of witchcraft hysteria, he created a new court that was responsible for trials and executions, and appointed Stoughton as Chief Justice.
Stoughton’s approach was controversial because he accepted “spectral evidence” — testimony that a person’s specter had committed evil-doing, not the person themselves. His acceptance of spectral evidence was at least partly responsible for every single execution.
After the 19th hanging, the governor reorganized the courts and told Stoughton to disregard spectral evidence. As a result, many cases were dismissed due to a lack of evidence, and the governor vacated the few that weren’t. He also stopped the executions of several pregnant defendants who’d been convicted before the courts were reorganized. Stoughton, feeling angry and undermined, briefly quit the Court in protest.
Before and after the Trials, Stoughton was the acting governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and served as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court for the rest of his life. Unlike some of the other magistrates, Stoughton never admitted that he’d made a mistake in accepting spectral evidence, nor did he apologize for his role in the Trials.
The town of Stoughton, Massachusetts is named after him. Case files: William Stoughton
TIMOTHY SWAN – Age 30. Case files: Timothy Swan
TITUBA – Age unknown. Tituba’s background is largely a mystery, though scholars have traced her roots to an Arawak-speaking group in present-day Venezuela. At the time, there was a labor crisis in Barbados, with a huge demand for indigenous slaves. So it’s possible (or even likely) that Tituba and her husband John – and perhaps their daughter Violet – were taken from South America and enslaved in Barbados before they were purchased by Reverend Samuel Parris.
In white Puritan Salem, Tituba had three strikes against her: She was a black, female, slave. This plus her exotic accent and culture made her an easy target. So it may not be a surprise that she was the first person to be accused.
Although Tituba was the first person who was accused, she languished in prison for 15 months until she was sold to an unknown person for the price of her jail fees. (It’s presumed that Rev Samuel Parris refused to pay them because he was so angry at her involvement.) We know nothing about what happened to her after that. Case files: Tituba
MARY WALCOTT – Age 17, was one of the “core accusers.” Compared to the others, she was unusual in that she had a stable home life. She was not a servant, nor an orphan, and hadn’t been traumatized by the wars in Maine.
She was, however, cousin to Ann Putnam, the girls’ leader. Ann was 12, and her family servant was 18. Mary, age 17, undoubtedly spent a good amount of time with them, and witnessed or heard about their torments.
Mary may have been the first girl to fake affliction. In mid-March, when only one hearing had taken place, a minister was invited to Salem Village to witness the afflictions for himself. One of the first people he met was Mary Walcott, who, during a pleasant conversation, suddenly screamed that she’d been bitten by a specter. Sure enough, the minister could see teeth marks on Mary’s arm.
After the trials, Mary married twice and had at least 10 known children. She died in her mid-70s.
Side notes: Mary’s father was the captain of the village militia. Her aunt was the neighbor who’d suggested a witch-cake to Tituba. Case files: Mary Walcott
SAMUEL WARDWELL – Age 49. Dabbled in fortune telling as a young man. To save his life, he confessed & submitted a long and detailed story of his indiscretions. He later recanted and claimed innocence. Case files: Samuel Wardwell
MARY WARREN – Age 20, a servant to John and Elizabeth Proctor. She may have been an orphan when she started working for them, and at age 20 was beginning to lose any prospect of marriage and family.
When Mary was young she witnessed a heated argument between her father and their neighbor, Alice Parker. Shortly after that, her mother and sister became ill, possibly with smallpox. It killed her mother, and her sister became deaf (and eventually mute). Mary blamed Alice Parker for her family’s tragedies and indeed, when Alice Parker was accused of witchcraft, Mary was happy to testify.
Mary herself was accused of witchcraft, and in turn accused others. Of the people Mary testified against, eight were hanged, one was tortured, and one died in prison. Case files: Mary Warren
SARAH WILDS – Age 65. Sarah was bold, and in her younger years even a little glamorous. At age 22 she was whipped for fornication. In her mid-30’s she was charged with wearing a silk scarf (considered to be above her station; an offense to the Puritans).
Like many accused people, Sarah and her family had been part of several feuds and scandals. When her husband’s 1st wife died, he married Sarah within months – a scandalous insult to the 1st wife’s family, who accused Sarah of witchcraft early and often. Two of her stepsons had died; one mysteriously, and the other of depression or possession. And unexplained illnesses and deaths seemed to follow her arguments with neighbors. She was an outspoken non-conformist, which may have made her an easy target. Case files: Sarah Wilds
JOHN WILLARD – Age 35. (Former deputy) John Willard — Age 35. At the time of the first allegations of witchcraft Willard was serving as a constable, and had arrested some of the accused. When he quit his position in protest, the afflicted girls accused him of being a witch himself. Not only that, but they said he’d murdered 13 people.
Unfortunately he’d made powerful enemies in the Putnams. When he first arrived at Salem Village, John Willard worked as a hired hand on the Putnam farm. One of his many tasks on the farm was looking after the young children living there, including a newborn baby girl. When the baby died, the distraught parents blames Willard.
John was also unpopular with his wife’s family, who also made several accusations against him: that he beat his wife, caused business failures, and that he caused illness and even death by looking at people with an “evil eye.” Case files: John Willard
ABIGAIL WILLIAMS – Age 11. Abigail lived with her uncle, the Reverend Samuel Parris, but history doesn’t tell us who her parents were or how she came to live with the Parris family.
Abigail and her cousin Betty Parris were the first girls to suffer afflictions. Ultimately Abigail testified in 7 cases and was involved in up to 17 of the capital cases.
Abigail’s later life is also a mystery, as she disappears from the records after the trials. Case files: Abigail Williams
WAIT WINTHROP – Age 51. Judge. Appointed by Governor William Phips to the court as a magistrate. Case files: Wait Winthrop